Acton Institute Powerblog

connecting good intentions with sound economics

France offers Iraq Christians asylum after Mosul threat
BBC
The French government says it is ready to offer asylum to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by Islamist militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Continue Reading...

Latest Posts

The New York Times has a new articled titled “Religious Conservatives Embrace Proposed E.P.A. Rules” that raises the question: are the Times’ editors irredeemably biased or are they just not all that bright? Continue Reading...

Today at TheImaginative Conservative, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, in an excerpt from his recent book, bemoans what he sees as “The Spoiling of America.” While sympathetic to his support for self-discipline, I find his analysis of our consumer culture to be myopic. Continue Reading...

Christian churches in the West have been focused on redistribution of income rather than the creation of wealth, says Brian Griffiths in this week’s Acton Commentary.
Through much of the post-war period in the West, the formation of economic policy was dominated by Keynesian activism on the part of governments seeking an increasing role in providing public services, reducing material poverty, and reshaping income redistribution. Continue Reading...

Today is the first World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, as declared by the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement:
To stop the traffickers, we must sever funding pipelines and seize assets. Continue Reading...

This Chart Proves the War on Poverty Has Been a Catastrophic Failure
Robert Rector, The Daily Signal
If converted into cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S. Continue Reading...

On July 17th, the Acton Institute hosted a panel discussion titled “The Crucible of Poverty: Perspectives from the Trenches.” The discussion examined the issue of poverty, with a focus on what strategies for poverty alleviation have worked, what strategies have failed, and how we can better help the most vulnerable among us. Continue Reading...

We’ve just posted the final bundle of 107 audio files from Acton University 2014 available for $14.95 at our digital download store. Our lunch and evening lectures are also free, including talks from:
Rev. Continue Reading...

Yesterday the State Department released its International Religious Freedom Report for 2013. A wide range of U.S. government agencies and offices use the reports for such efforts as shaping policy and conducting diplomacy. Continue Reading...

As we continue to encounter the adverse effects of certain forms of foreign aid and other misaligned efforts to alleviate poverty, it becomes increasingly clear that those in need require a level of care, concern, and discipleship not well suited to detached top-down “solutions.”
But just as we ought to be careful about the types of solutions we create, we ought to give the same level of attentiveness to the needs themselves, which are no less complex and difficult to discern. Continue Reading...